"Speak low to me, my Saviour--low and sweet
From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low,
Lest I should fear and fall, and miss thee so
Who art not miss'd by any that entreat.
Speak to me as to Mary at thy feet--
And if no precious gums my hands bestow,
Let my tears drop like amber, while I go
In reach of thy divinest voice complete
In humanest affection--thus, in sooth
To lose the sense of losing! As a child,
Whose song-bird seeks the wood for evermore,
Is sung to in its stead by mother's mouth;
Till, sinking on her breast, love-reconciled,
He sleeps the faster that he wept before."
How profound and yet how feminine is the sentiment! No _man_ could have
written that sonnet. It rises spontaneously from the heart of a
Christian woman, which overflows with feelings more gracious and more
graceful than ever man's can be. It teaches us what religious poetry
truly is; for it makes affections inspired by the simplest things of
earth, to illustrate, with the most artless beauty, the solemn
consolations of the Cross.
The pointedness of the following religious sonnet is very striking and
sublime. The text is, "And the Lord turned and _looked_ upon Peter."